


The Blinding White Path

by RuminantMonk



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2018-03-07 16:49:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3177308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuminantMonk/pseuds/RuminantMonk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra and Kuvira alone in the tundra for two and a half weeks, struggling to survive the extreme conditions of their environment and each other.  A deep character study of these two women, as well as an examination of Korra and Asami's relationship experienced through memory.  Occurs one year after the end of Book 4 and deals with the fallout of the Earth Empire.</p><p>  <i>The mission was only supposed to last five days.</i><br/> <br/><i>But a whole two and a half weeks later, Korra found herself all alone with Kuvira in the vast expanse of the frozen tundra, unsure of their exact location or how many days and miles they had left to go until they reached their final destination.</i></p><p>  <i>Earlier that month, Korra had received a telegram bearing the golden seal of the Earth Kingdom, the message inside requesting her attendance at an upcoming meeting of recently elected political delegates and regional representatives from across the continent.  They had traveled to Republic City to bring to her a delicate matter, to ask her personally to help transport Kuvira to a new prison, one they had been building in secret over the past few months.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The mission was only supposed to last five days.  
  
But a whole two and a half weeks later, Korra found herself all alone with Kuvira in the vast expanse of the frozen tundra, unsure of their exact location or how many days and miles they had left to go until they reached their final destination.  
  
Earlier that month, Korra had received a telegram bearing the golden seal of the Earth Kingdom, the message inside requesting her attendance at an upcoming meeting of recently elected political delegates and regional representatives from across the continent.  They had traveled to Republic City to bring to her a delicate matter, to ask her personally to help transport Kuvira to a new prison, one they had been building in secret over the past few months.  
  
The Earth Kingdom was still in disarray one year after the fall of the metal colossus, leaving everyone to pick up the pieces. Kuvira's empire had not been easily dismantled -- severing the head had not disabled the body, rather only led to new heads sprouting from the neck where the Great Uniter had been removed, each of them snapping for a bite of power. The world leaders had found that the beast had been more manageable when Kuvira had made up its single vicious head. Now factions were popping up everywhere with their own agendas with militias to back them up.  
  
One particular Earth Empire faction had started training covert groups of highly specialized assassins in a newly developed form of metalbending. Their leader was a former Air Acolyte who had discovered a way to incorporate airbending techniques into earthbending forms, marrying the two opposing elements (the swiftness of air and sureness of earth) to deadly effect. Under him, the select soldiers were trained to harness and release chi in rapid fire movements, propelling forth tiny metal capsules at unfathomable, lethal speeds. The ensuing projectiles were too fast to be seen and therefore impossible to dodge or block. Many elected officials had been killed this way and attempts had been made on the lives of Suyin Beifong and former acting regent Wu. Both had barely escaped with their lives, their survival the result of imperfect aim and sheer luck.  
  
Another of the Earth Empire factions, possibly the largest, was one composed of Great Uniter loyalists. Immediately following Kuvira’s arrest, they'd made numerous organized and violent attempts to extract and reinstate their former leader. As a result, the fallen Great Uniter had been transferred a total of six times to various prisonsin different locations, each failed retrieval leaving behind a bloody string of casualties on both sides.

And so plans were made to build a secret prison compound somewhere deep within the vast stretch of uninhabited tundra that lay far in northeast corner of the Earth Kingdom continent. It had taken the combined efforts of earthbenders, waterbenders, air nomads, and nonbenders to bring the project to fruition in complete secrecy, the grueling construction hidden under the cloak of extreme weather (often manipulated by the waterbenders and air nomads to create a perpetually impenetrable cover).

Still, for the matter of moving their prisoner, the delegates implored the Avatar for her expertise and skill.  Though Korra knew that that they saw her simply as an extra security measure, she accepted. She had experience in dealing with Kuvira and felt safer knowing that she herself would see to it that the war criminal would be kept away from the allure of power.

The mission would be difficult due to the necessary and inconvenient cautions required by deep espionage. A small team of ten would need to travel on ground without the aid of airship or any other large vehicle in order to avoid detection by the highly organized and ever watchful loyalists. Individual snow mobiles would be small enough to miss, the small and fast machines coated in reflective white paint to camouflage them effectively against the wintry landscape.

 To reach the prison, they would rely on old fashioned means of direction, namely maps, memory, and landmarks (radio and radar signals could be intercepted and tracked). Only one of the escorts, a captain of the United Republic by the name of Young, had ever been to the compound and knew its exact location. Earth Empire spies had proved their shadowy reach to be far, deep, and highly talented at poaching intel, and as a result, had planted seeds of distrust within the Earth Kingdom militia.  And so, rest of the escorts were to be kept in the dark and Young was to be their official scouting guide.

Before embarking on their journey, she was required to fill the Avatar in on all of the major checkpoints and the routes they would to reach them.

 _It will be a grueling journey_ , she’d said to Korra, _and so we must work together like a pack of snow fox wolves during the coldest_ , _darkest week of winter._ The metaphor was not lost on her Water Tribe ears – it was one often used by many of the Southern tribesmen to preface coming times of hardship.  
  
Of course, Young was now dead along with all the others, buried deep under a blanket of snow.  On the third day, an avalanche had taken them all by surprise, leaving only Korra and Kuvira alive and the rest of the escorts packed into a frozen grave. And as luck would have it, by that point they had trekked too far to turn back around.

\--

  
Korra escaped the tidal wave of snow with a split second activation of the avatar state. Soaring up into the air, she dragged Kuvira up along with her, the latter having been chained to Korra at the wrist from the start of the trip. Using a spinning orb of wind, Korra encased them both, the shell of air repelling the wall of snow surging off the mountain side. With one arm locked firmly around her prisoner’s waist, Korra flew them away from harm as the snow proceeded to drown their teammates.

Soon after the snow had finally settled, Korra fainted, waking up hours later to find Kuvira still chained to her in platinum, the shackle to which Korra herself held the key.  
  
As soon as she regained consciousness, Korra set about trying to dig out the bodies hidden hundreds of feet down from where they stood.  When she finally cleared the snow several levels down to where the corpses lay, they'd long gone cold and all the snow mobiles were ruined, crushed and rendered useless under the accumulation of packed ice. Following a sobering moment during which both women concluded they would have to finish the journey with just the two of them alone, they salvaged what supplies they could, stripping backpacks off frozen bodies and wrenching open the compartments of the less mangled snowmobiles.

They laid out and counted what they needed to take, carefully calculating how much weight their shoulders could carry for the long cold hours and days to come. They then stuffed the chosen essentials into their canvas daypacks and pulled them on over their one lone free shoulder (Korra's left, Kuvira's right), each woman’s second arm impeded, its movement limited by its attachment to the other.

Ache set in quickly by the extra weight placed on Korra’s shoulder,  muscle and bone crying out for a more equanimous distribution of labor. Still, neither she nor Kuvira once addressed the discomfort caused by the chain that bound them.

  
\--

  
 _Korra, I have a bad feeling about all of this.  
_  
After a year of being together, Asami had learned how to limit the way she vocalized her worries concerning her lover's duties as the Avatar. Never once had she asked her relinquish responsibility and Korra knew she never would. But the fact that Asami was saying any of this at all spoke to just how strongly her intuition was warning her.  It was unsettling.  
  
 _I don't like not knowing where you are and I don't like not being able to reach you._  
  
From the main drawer of her desk, she pulled out a small metal box, some sort of humble looking device, and placed it in Korra’s hands.  
  
 _So, could you please just do me a favor and take this? It's a radio with a built-in homing device, a new prototype I'm working on. I know you can't jeopardize the secrecy of this trip, but its signal only leads back to my office. We've developed a way to make it nearly impossible to intercept, so please? Just in case_.  
  
Korra looked down at the device in her hands, then back up to Asami’s eyes, blue meeting green.  She saw the pleading look behind them and nodded.

  
\--

 

Korra stared into the dented face of the radio, antenna bent, and the small bulb on the top left corner still dark despite the switch on the side that had been flipped to "on."  
  
Asami had been right.  
  
The radio had broken upon impact from her fall following the avalanche. Still, Korra carried it with her.

Daypacks stuffed and stretching, she and Kuvira trekked slowly through the snow, taking slow heavy steps through the thick, fresh snow.  The snowshoes on their feet helped them keep balance and prevent their legs from sinking further into the thick snow.

Right now, Korra wished they'd had some of the cross country skis her father favored during his lengthy hunting excursions. With them, she could simply zoom through the white landscape, bolstered to adrenaline-pumping speeds by airbending. But she knew the snowshoes were a better option for this scenario considering the additional weight they bore on their backs.

Support over speed. Her least favorite strategy, one of steadiness, a tactic starved of excitement.  
  
Support over speed.

  
\--

  
  
This is what they carried with them, all provided by the Earth Kingdom:  
  
Food, namely one small bag of rice, strips of dried seal jerky, two cups of Flameo Instant Noodles (their nutritional value was close to nothing, not to mention had a high salt content that would dehydrate them both, yet still, Korra thought it a small, necessary pleasure), portable sachets containing a variety of readymade teas (also under the Flameo brand and another small pleasure), and a bag filled with dried fruits and nuts.  
  
A flat, portable metal stove equipped with a single burner (manufactured by Varrick-Moon Global Industries), powered by batteries (another of Varrick-Moon's innovations) and a canister of gas.  
  
Extra batteries, one tin pot for cooking, two tin cups, one water canteen, one healer's kit, two pairs of arctic visors (Water Tribe made, carved from bone and fitted over the eyes, a single slit cut through the center), one utility knife, a compass, and two pairs of collapsible chopsticks.  
  
One tent for the both of them to share, along with the metal pipes that when assembled, made up its frame. Two zip-up bedrolls. One storm lamp.  
  
Then there were Korra's personal supplies kept hidden at the bottom of her backpack, something the now deceased escorts had not bothered to check, perhaps out of respect. She had brought with her the defunct Future Industries device and extra food rations consisting of individually wrapped nutrition bars Asami had insisted that she bring with her, despite how dry and unappealing they looked.  
  
As always, Korra was thankful for Asami's cautiousness. She had learned fairly quickly that Asami's borderline overpreparedness never meant "I do not trust you," but rather, "I do not trust the fates."

  
  
\--

  
"We're supposed to head east, past the mountains up ahead," Korra said to Kuvira, pointing toward the towering white peaks that lay miles before them.  
  
"You mean to cross them?" Even while incredulous, Kuvira's tone maintained its studied calm.  
  
"No. There's a narrow passage through one of those mountains. It opens up into a network of caves that go all the way through to the other side. Once we reach the entrance, we'll set up camp for the night."

  
\--

  
Earlier at the start of their trip, one of the escorts had applied a series of lightning quick jabs all over Kuvira's body, hitting pressure points to block her chi and effectively remove her bending. He was an exceptionally gifted chi blocker and could disable a bender for the full length of one day and one night.  When the effects wore off by the morning, he would wake and begin the process anew.  And so, every morning, Kuvira was roused and made to stand drowsily before him, never flinching or crying out once through the cycle of assault.  Korra thought this was a horrifying way to wake up, to start one's day with an empty well of chi, bone-dry and unable to bend.  
  
As they walked in silence, Korra looked to Kuvira, wondering what to do about her earthbending prisoner, who, by the next morning, would regain her elemental abilities.

When no answer came to her, she decided she would deal with it later. She would wait and listen, trusting that an option would reveal itself when the time was right.  
  
 _Neutral jing_ , she thought.

  
\--

  
They'd been walking for hours through the windless cold when they reached the mountain range. Young had said the entrance to the passage could be found on a short mountain with a low peak, flanked on either side by two taller mountains of the same height. _Look for symmetry_ , she said, _and you will find the opening_. Remembering her words, Korra's eyes scanned the jagged line of mountain tops until her sight caught on an unnaturally even pocket of space.

From there, they walked south, and sure enough, found themselves at a narrow opening at the base of the range.  
  
At the dark mouth of the cave, the two women removed their snowshoes and affixed them to their backpacks. Korra conjured a small flame in her palm and stepped inside, Kuvira close behind her.

Her foot slipped at the edge of an unseen precipice and soon, she was falling, shouting all the way.  Her shouts were soon joined by Kuvira’s, the other woman pulled along with her by the chain that connected them. Blindly, Korra shot out a gust of air under her plummeting body to break what would inevitably be a hard fall.

Kuvira landed first, body hitting the ground with a loud thud and pained shout, while Korra herself managed a softer landing, the air breaking her fall. Their backpacks soon joined them on the floor with muffled thuds.  She hoped no other equipment was broken. 

Korra ran over and bent down to where Kuvira was crumpled on the ground, a low burning flame cupped in her palm.  
  
"Hey, are you okay?"  
  
She could hear the grimace behind her voice. "I think my wrist is broken."  
  
"I must have slipped on some ice. Can you stand?"  
  
Wordlessly, Kuvira stood up. Korra could make out the hard edges of her face, flickering orange light dancing on her features. She motioned for Kuvira to show her the wrist.  As she assessed it, Kuvira grunted in anger or frustration or pain, Korra couldn't tell.  
  
"It isn't fractured at least. Let's stop and set up the tent here."  
  
"My wrist wouldn't be broken if I weren't chained to you."  
  
Korra considered this. Took into account how she would soon be able to access her bending, come sun up. She thought about the unshakeable ache in her own left shoulder. Thought about the one in Kuvira’s right shoulder.  Looked at the unnatural way Kuvira’s right hand was bent at the wrist, limp fingers dangling uselessly.

"You’re right.”  She paused, carefully leading her next words towards an offer more conciliatory than apologetic.  “I’ll unlock you under the condition that you not bend."

She watched Kuvira's green eyes harden, then soften only slightly with the barest hint of relief.  
  
"Bend even once and I will end you."  
  
Kuvira answered with a curt nod and Korra reached over to her daypack to dig out the key she’d hidden in the small pocket of its flap.  
  
The platinum cuff on Kuvira’s left wrist fell open, falling to the floor in a loud, bright clang.  Her own shackle followed and Korra rubbed the tender skin around her wrist, grateful for the separation.

  
\--

  
"I wish Young had mentioned that these caves would be underground," Korra says, guiding the small ball of flame in her right hand into the open glass bell of the storm lamp held in her other. Though they had escaped exposure to the brutal winds outside, the caves are frigid cold, with the freezing, staid air locked within rock walls crusted with clear, blue ice. Stalactites hang treacherously from the sharpest angles of the roughly hewn ceiling.  
  
"Let's set up the tent here," Korra says, setting her backpack down onto the cold ground. As she spoke, puffs of white appeared with each breath and word exhaled from her lips.  
  
They assemble the tent in silence, extending hollow pipes and clicking them into place. Korra does most of the work, as Kuvira has only one working hand. Korra throws the white canvas tarp over the frame, then tied the ends down until the edges were pulled fast. She motions for Kuvira to go in, handing her the rolled up bamboo mat to spread over the uneven, rocky ground.  Grabbing both their backpacks and the lamp, Korra then follows her inside, pulling the front flap fast shut from the inside.  She throws Kuvira's backpack to where the other woman sits at the back of the tent.  
  
"Are you hungry?" She pulls out the portable stove from her pack and sets it down in the middle of the tent. Kuvira doesn't answer, so she goes ahead and removes the bag of dry rice along with a canteen of water and tin pot.

"Maybe we can have some tea first." Despite her fur-lined parka and firebending abilities, Korra still felt cold to the bone, probably brought on by exhaustion and exposure to the elements.

With her arm stuck all the way in, she digs around in the backpack, fingers feeling for a small cloth bag that held the small sachets of tea.  
  
Behind her, a sudden movement. Korra whips around to find Kuvira zooming towards her, knife in hand.  She's too fast, but Korra manages to grab hold of her broken wrist at the same time the cold hard edge of the blade presses at her throat.  
  
"You said no bending, Avatar, but didn't rule anything else out."  
  
Had she been careless enough to pack the utility knife in Kuvira's backpack? Thoroughly irritated, but unintimidated, Korra squeezes her fist around where the bones of Kuvira's wrist are shattered. She feels pleasure at seeing her wince.  
  
"What do you plan to do? Are you going to limp out of here by yourself with that broken wrist?"  
  
Silence. The blade at her throat is pulled tighter on her skin, but not enough to break the surface.  
  
"You don't even know where we are, much less where we're going. Even if you try to backtrack, you won't make it out alive."  
  
More silence. Kuvira's wrist still wrapped tight under her fist, she bends it back slightly. The other woman bites down a grunt and keeps the knife in place.  
  
"I could have left you for dead, you know. Because if I were trying to get out of here, it wouldn't be in my interest to keep you alive. I can get out of here just fine on my own. But you need me. You'll die without me."  
  
The knife doesn't budge.  
  
"So don't be a fool."  
  
Finally, Kuvira drops the knife away from her neck and Korra loosens her hold on her wrist, letting go only when she hears the knife clatter to the floor.

Kuvira sits back and crosses her legs, her expression unreadable, and Korra faces back around to turn on the stove, the gas igniting with a soft pop.  
  
"I'm going to make some tea. I hope genmai is okay with you."

  
\--

  
The frozen caves are a labyrinth. They follow the arrow on the compass that points east, but the tunnels do not cut a straight path. It is a winding, curving network of darkness, with the storm lamp illuminating only a pitiful few steps ahead of them.

Korra and Kuvira walk for hours on end through the curving, iced walls, squeezing by enormous icicles that hang in their path and tiptoeing around patches of black ice. 

  
Exhausted and impatient, Korra finally stops and firebends a long burst of flames forward into the darkness, illuminating the cavern enough to reveal a long tunnel that splits off into two mouths. She wishes she'd learned Toph's earthbending stomp, the one Lin and Suyin also know and which sends forth sonic waves out into space, tracing the environment to help visualize unseeable areas to the wielder.  
  
Korra turns to Kuvira, wondering if Suyin had ever taught her this skill.  She decides to ask.  
  
"Do you know how to see earth? Can you bend with your foot to take a look and see what's ahead?"  
  
Kuvira raises an eyebrow. After a moment, "No. Only Beifong family members know that skill."  
  
Korra sighs. Then suddenly, an idea come to her.  
  
With a quick sweep up her arm, she shoots forth a powerful gust of wind, the rush of air filling the entire circumference of the tunnel. Korra closes her eyes and listens, hearing the loud howl decrescendo into a far distant whistle. It is a little like touching a spirit vine, locating persons through psychic touch, energy flowing from her fingertips through roots like blood pumping through vessels. The same principal applies here, her ears tracking the sound by hitching a ride with the wind.  
  
"I think I know the fastest way out of these caves."

  
\--

  
A few hours later, they make it out into open air. The last leg through the caverns took a lot out of them, having had to climb over boulders gathered in a steep incline leading out to the exit. Kuvira in particular had struggled, the weight of her backpack and her broken wrist robbing her of her natural agility.  
  
Looking out into the narrow passageway cut through the mountains surrounding them, Korra asks if they should push onward or set up camp. By this time, it is night, the moon nowhere to be seen. The darkness is thick and velvety, and Korra can only discern the mountains from the sky by seeing where the stars are blocked out by the shadows.

Korra turns around to face Kuvira. She can barely make out her features which are steeped in shadows.  

"We can stop here or we can keep going for a little while longer."

"Let's stop," Kuvira answers. Behind her words, Korra can hear that fatigue has won out over pride.

 

 

\--

  
As rice steams in the pot, Korra turns to Kuvira. "Let me see your wrist."  
  
Frowning, Kuvira obliges.  
  
"I'm going to set it back into place."  
  
Kuvira tries to wriggle out of her grasp. "No. You'll only make it worse."  
  
"It's already swelling like crazy. Let me try. I know a few healing techniques."  
  
Kuvira stares at her for a long minute, then nods.  
  
With one hand gripping Kuvira's forearm and the other wrapped tight around the base of her palm, Korra grits her teeth in concentration. Then twists hard with a quick crack. Kuvira lets out a sharp cry.

Korra reaches for the unscrewed canteen and bends out a small amount of water from within. Kuvira's wrist still in hand, she slowly moves the floating globule of water back and forth over the injury. The water glows softly with each pass.  
  
"Asami says that bone is technically mineral because it's made of calcium or something," she says as she manipulates the water, its rhythm hypnotic. "She thinks earthbenders can be healers, too, sort of like waterbenders."  
  
Kuvira says nothing, simply watching the undulating water, entranced. Her silence prompts Korra to wonder if she's said too much. Her mind wanders, then, and a sense of dread soon fills her as she thinks of bloodbenders, repulsed by the thought of bones crushed to powder, bodies left misshapen and limp without a frame to support them.

  
\--

  
The next morning before they head out, Korra hands Kuvira one of the many nutrition bars stashed in her backpack. Kuvira unwraps it, turning over the thin, golden brown cake in her hand.  
  
"What is this?"  
  
"Breakfast.  Brought to you by Future Industries.  Supposedly, each one’s packed with enough protein and nutrients to keep a soldier going all day." Asami had told her she’d been commissioned by the United Republic Forces to come up with a viable food source that was portable and small, but filled with enough nutritional value to last a UR trooper through the most tiring campaigns.

 _The hard part is making them somewhat palatable_.  Korra remembers these words with a bit of apprehension as she unwraps one of the rectangular cakes. 

She pauses before taking a large bite.  Chewing thoughtfully, she thinks it doesn't taste as bad as it looks, its somewhat confusing flavor bringing to mind the earthiness of toasted sesame and tanginess of dried mango. The grainy texture leaves something to be desired, though, each bite leaving her mouth mealy and parched. It's nothing a healthy swig of water can't help wash down. Sure enough, by the time she's finished her bar, Korra feels full, surprised that such a little thing could satiate her famously ravenous morning appetite. Asami is a genius.

"The Sato girl made this?"  
  
"Future Industries did, yeah."  
  
"It's funny, that girl. She overcompensates so much just to convince her bender friends of her worth, to prove that she's as valuable as they are. It's sad, really."  
  
Korra sees red.  "How dare you." It's all she can do to keep from breaking both Kuvira's wrists, mended or not.  
  
"How dare you. Just because you couldn't see what Baatar offered you outside of what fit into your pathetic agenda."  
  
Kuvira is silent, her eyes narrowing.  
  
"You milked his devotion dry, then threw him away once he wasn't useful to you. I'm only sorry that he didn't see how you saw him any sooner than he did."  
  
Korra pulls on her backpack, facing away to begin walking into the morning light.  
  
"So don't put your shit on me. You didn't deserve him."  
  
A few minutes later, she hears soft footfalls follow behind her.

  
\--

  
Once they make it all the way to the end of the narrow passageway, the mountains end and the flat white tundra begins. Korra finds herself adjusting to a sort of routine that's established itself in her interactions with Kuvira. They always travel in silence, only speaking when Korra lists out directions and points out landmarks. Kuvira speaks only to respond when Korra asks when they should stop, where they should camp.  
  
The cold is bitter and the isolation lonely. They encounter no animals or plantlife in the barren landscape, only rock and ice. The uniform whiteness of the snow is blinding when the sun reaches its highest point in the day. Through the thin slit of their sun visors, their vision is limited, yet another sense falling victim to the extreme cold.  
  
Korra is always worn out by the time they set up camp, her physical reserves depleted from the low grade firebending she uses all day to keep herself warm.  
  
Huddling over the flame of the stove, Kuvira peels off her gloves and Korra notices the beginnings of frostbite blistering pink and white over her fingertips. Kuvira rubs her hands together vigorously in an attempt to warm them.  
  
Korra stops her.  "Don't! Your fingers are frostbitten. That kind of movement will only make it worse." She sandwiches Kuvira's hands between hers.  
  
"You have to limit movement. This will help." Korra conjures the tiniest amount of firebending, letting the heat emanating from her skin seep into Kuvira's frostbitten hands. When she feels the stiff fingers thaw down to normal human temperatures, Korra releases them.

"Now tuck them under the bedroll or put your gloves back on."  
  
Later that night as they eat their dinner of rice and seal jerky, Kuvira speaks.  
  
"I have heard that Baatar is back in Zaofu."  
  
Korra stops eating, her chopsticks frozen mid air. "Yeah. Well, not exactly. He's in a prison just outside of it."

"Suyin has always had pull and her reach is far."  
  
Korra thinks Kuvira's observation is true. The Beifong name carries power wherever it goes, but Korra had been surprised to find that it was enough to curry favor with the inimitable judge who'd overseen the war crime trials held earlier that year.

As one of the highest ranking co-conspirators, Baatar Jr's sentence was shockingly lenient: ten years in a low security prison with the potential for parole in the future. Still, the Beifong matriarch pushed for more (much to her older sister's dismay).  
  
"Suyin is trying to get his sentence reduced to house arrest. She reckons she can make it happen in a year." She delivers that last statement with a bit of derision or incredulity, Korra's not sure which.

"Su has never been the forgiving type," Kuvira says simply.  
  
"Family tends to be forgiving, especially the Beifongs. Toph once told me that blood can wash away even the worst transgressions."  
  
"Is that so?"  
  
Korra isn't so sure. She thinks of Noatak and Tarrlok, of Yakone and the bitterness passed from father to son, brother to brother. She thinks of her uncle and his brother, her father, of oceans that separate the north and south poles, and of the portals that connect them. Korra them remembers Desna and Eska, realizing that she's never asked her cousins anything.  
  
Korra isn't sure. She thinks maybe not, maybe not always, but says nothing.  
  
Then she thinks of Asami and Hiroshi. She thinks of Asami's mother. Thinks of the Sato legacy and the beauty and intelligence passed down to a daughter. Remembers Hiroshi's last hours, remembers Asami's strength. She thinks again of Asami, alone, of her strength that now speaks for all of the Satos.  
  
She says, "Maybe, yes."

  
\--

  
While Kuvira sleeps, Korra steps outside into the night. Tonight, her mood is as barren as the landscape and she wants to look at the stars.  
  
Fortunately, the night is clear and the clouds are absent. Stars of every size can be made out against the black canvas, each pinprick of light shining bright and cheerful against the occasional swathes of cosmic milkiness painted on the sky. It is breathtaking.  
  
She remembers how as a child, her mother and father taught her how to navigate using the constellations as her guide. They took turns pointing and reciting, helping her to memorize each name and shape. _Standing Platypus Bear, Stinging Scorpion, Jumping Hare, Sleeping Eel Hound._ Her mother favored animals and beasts. _The Dragoon of Heaven, The Drowning Sailor, The Sword Dancer, The Leaping Guardian._ Her father loved warriors and gods.  
  
Korra remembers Asami saying that one day, humans could fly out and reach the constellations that  she loved so much, something Korra back then had a hard time believing. But if comets could make timed visits to their world on trajectories set by fate, Korra didn't see why people couldn't do the same.  
  
Spurred by the clear night sky, Korra thinks back to when she and Asami had camped out in the Si Wong desert. She'd come along on Asami's business trip out to a testing site where Future Industries was testing a jetpack prototype.

During the late hours of night while the rest of the engineers and crew slept in their trailers and tents, she and Asami had laid out their bedrolls on the cool sand, preferring to face the sky and the open air. Out in the desert, the sand was blown so flat that the stars started and ended at the horizon, a view totally unobscured and almost overwhelming.

She'd felt incredibly small then, but with Asami at her side, also like they were at the very center of the universe. They discussed Harmonic Convergence, Korra confessing that 10,000 years felt like an impossibility, telling Asami that whenever she allowed herself to think about what the world would be like that far into the future, her mind collapsed onto itself.  
  
 _I won't be there. And neither will you.  
  
_ Asami had laughed. _You will, though, just as a different Avatar. And it's so exciting to know that you'll get to see what the world will be like that far ahead in the future. Even if it's through someone else's eyes, you'll still get to witness a new world._ _  
_  
That thought left her gripped with terror. _But you won't. Nobody will know you. I don't like the idea of a world that exists without you in it._ _  
_  
Asami had kissed her cheek in reassurance. _Don't worry so much. I exist in the world now and I know my place in it. That's enough for me. Though I do like the idea of you keeping my memory alive._ _Because you'll still love me even then, right?_ _  
_  
She was teasing a little, but Korra held her tight.  
  
 _Of course. Always_.

  
\--

  
Korra is staring up at the glowing star marking the tip of the spear wielded by The Dragoon of Heaven when she hears the flap of the tent flutter open.  
  
Behind her, the sound of footsteps muffled by the snow. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Kuvira walk up next to her.  
  
"I couldn't sleep," she says, her eyes remaining on the constellation.  
  
"The Twin Tiger Monks, is that them over there to the left?" It is more of a statement than a question.  
  
Korra scans the sky until she spots two clusters of five stars, mirror images of each other, far to the upper left of The Dragoon of Heaven.  
  
"Yeah, that's them.  I didn't see them earlier, good eye."  
  
They stand in silence like that for a while, their eyes combing for recognizable groupings of stars.  Korra points out another constellation, identifies it by name. _Wounded Horse_. Kuvira finds another. _The Stonecutter's Son._ __  
  
They continue like this for a while. The night is rich in stars, the sky adorned in light.

 

\--

 

Korra is learning to trust Kuvira. It is an exercise in restraint, requiring her to judge and measure out fractions of kindness. Korra resents that she must fight her natural instincts, her built-in impulse to help, hates that she must suppress this part of herself. But if she's learned anything from the recent years, it is that in the eyes of others, trust is yet another asset to be claimed and exploited. To them, the trust of the Avatar is the most lucrative of all.

One evening as they are setting up camp, Kuvira makes it clear that these small accumulations of kindness are not lost on her.

"If you think that I will try to kill you, you are miscalculating," she says in an even voice. "As you pointed out before, I will die without you.  And I harbor no ill will. For me, revenge is never a motivator and I do not exert energy on an emotion as wasteful as hate. I am not one for empty shows of power."

Korra is not sure if she believes her. Zaofu is still clear in her mind and she remembers how Kuvira had laid claim on her hometown simply to mark it as hers. A green and grey banner thrown over the Beifong manor. Suyin's rare meteorite floating and morphing in the palm of Kuvira's hand, her fingers toying with the metal like a covetous child.

Though she wonders if those meteorites do in fact belong to Su. Can anyone truly own that which falls from the sky? Sozin's Comet comes to mind and Korra recalls how its otherworldly flames were harnessed in a moment of militaristic innovation, wielded ruthlessly in the name of genocide.

Her mind wanders to the new Earth Empire assassins and their impossibly fast, undodgeable metal capsules. She thinks of Hiroshi Sato's mecha suits and Varrick's spirit vines, the latter of which were stolen and co-opted by Baatar Jr.

A while back, she'd asked Asami about the evolution of technology, if once the potential for destruction is discovered, if it can ever be unseen.

 _If an inventor takes one step forward in the wrong direction, can they ever take that step back?_  

Asami said that though she'd asked herself that same question many times, she didn't know the answer.

_I suppose you can always choose to step around it and just hope that no one else seizes what you chose to leave be._

Future Industries' current developments are focused on exploring countermeasures, defenses, and disablement.  Asami's research now deals primarily in new ways to protect against brute force.

Korra, thinking of waterbending and its origins in healing, theorizes that had Asami Sato been born a bender, her element might have been water.

 

\--

 

They spot a forest north from where they stand. And though they are to head farther east toward a frozen river, Korra is drawn to the woods. She decides that the detour will only lose them a few hours, justifying her decision by counting the possible comforts they may find in the trees. 

Firewood and a real fire, for one, and animals to hunt. After days and days of relying on Asami's nutrition bars and plain rice with scraps of jerky, her body and morale would benefit from a real meal.  
  
Kuvira agrees, so they head north.  
  
Once inside the farthest outskirts of the forest, Korra breaks her no bending rule, allowing  Kuvira to bend metal (from the tent poles) into a saw and an ax to speed up the felling of trees for tinder. As she's splitting logs into smaller pieces, Korra spots something flying overhead near the tops of the trees. Then something shiny follows it, whizzing by her head and into the canopy, striking it down.

It is a pheasant dove, a medium-sized bird with a plump chest, long neck, its whole body covered in soft white feathers.

It falls to the ground, landing softly in the snow, twitching and struggling in spite of its bent neck. The projectile must have nicked it near the head. Korra watches it buck pathetically from its place on the snow, its wings fluttering helplessly.

She looks around on the ground for something to help end the creature’s misery and finds a fist-sized stone.

But Kuvira is already knelt over the bird, her hands wrapped gently around its head.  Pale, long fingers entwine elegantly through soft down, the pallor of her flesh matching the white feather coat.  

A quick merciful turn of her wrist and the bird’s neck snaps with a soft crack.  Kuvira looks up at Korra, then to the stone she holds lamely at her side. 

“Did you mean to mangle its skull with that, Avatar?”

She stands up, bird still grasped in her fist, dangling at her side.

“There must be more near here.  I’ll go look for them.  Set up camp and start a fire,” Kuvira says to her before walking deeper into the trees.

As Korra gathers together her pile of kindling in the center of stones arranged in a ring, she hears a faint screeching in the distance overhead.  She looks to the tops of the trees and watches as a flock of birds disperses up into the clear blue sky, scattering like ash.

 

\--

 

Wood crackles and glowing ember dust pops in the air before disappearing into smoke. The fire is more than warm, Korra thinks, it is a joy. 

She and Kuvira sit next to each other, picking at the juicy poultry charred brown speared on sharp sticks, thick droplets of fat dripping slowly off the skewers.  A steaming cup of noodles cooks off to the side.  Korra thought it would be a good night to enjoy them along with the rest of their freshly cooked meal.

A pleasant warm feeling in her stomach spreads, fills her up.  This night is a much needed reprieve, a small flicker of light amidst the unyielding landscape of the past few days and the last week.

Korra has already lost track of time. The fire makes her feel like herself again and so she allows herself to miss Asami in this moment, permits longing to enter the space in her heart reserved only for her.

“How do your mother and father feel about having the Avatar as their child knowing you were once the children of other parents?”

Korra looks up from her cup of hot tea, steam curling around her face.

“What do you mean?”

“The Avatar has had many mothers and fathers.  And will go on to have many more.” 

“I haven’t really thought about it.” It is the truth.  However, Korra is more than familiar with the years of worry that her mother now wears as a series of fine lines on her face.  The streaks of gray that have recently appeared in her father's hair. 

But she has not thought of her past lives much since losing connection to them years ago.  It is a unique guilt and pain with which she has not yet come to terms. Still, when she looks at Tenzin, she sometimes feels something familiar stir within her, something she could describe as a twinge of protectiveness colored by sadness.  Perhaps it is Raava who recognizes him as a son, having kept the memory of her former selves alive inside of her.

“I’m not an orphan.”  Kuvira pauses.  “I was abandoned.  There is a difference.”

Korra says nothing, allows her to continue.

“I don’t remember their faces.  I don’t know why they left me.  I used to wonder why, but no longer.  What reason is there to leave a child on its own?  It is a question that has no acceptable answer.”

Korra pulls up her knees, hugging them.  “When did Su take you in?”

“Not for many years. I was taken to an orphanage when local miners found me wandering around in a pit rich with ore.” Her voice is quiet. She takes a sip of her tea. “I used to think it was fate.” 

Korra thinks of blood, the fine traces of iron that flows within everyone. Kya had explained this principal to her, that though waterbenders could manipulate the liquid life force, there were trace minerals contained in blood that metalbenders could detect. 

 _There are those who often feel weak, because their blood is thin._ She had explained this over dinner. _A natural remedy for this is a nice rare cut of meat._

Kuvira speaks again. “When I was eight years old, Suyin came into our town in search of investors and contractors to help with the expansion of Zaofu.  She saw me playing on a swing.  She told me I’d been metalbending without knowing it, moving the chains of my swing.  I only remember being able to swing higher than the other children.  But that’s what she saw, my raw talent, my potential.  So she pulled some strings and took me with her to Zaofu.”

Korra watches the reflection of the flames flicker in her eyes, gold licking and curling inside green irises. She's reminded of Asami’s collection of stones and crystals. One of them is a large chunk of jade that sits on a pedestal on the mantel, a particularly rare specimen due to the tiny veins of gold that run through milky green.

“This is how Su has always seen me: a force to be harnessed.”  Kuvira punctuates this statement with a stretch of her arms.  “This is also how others see you, Avatar.”

Korra shrugs and swirls around the contents in her cup of tea. “That's kind of true. But this is my job and I have enough experience to know when someone is ill-intentioned.”

Silence stretches out as they finish their food, taking the time to savor everything. When they are done, they brew more tea in front of the fire.

“There are days when I think I should have been a dancer.”

Korra remembers her first visit to Zaofu when she’d watched lithe women jumping in graceful arcs, balancing a giant rose gold lotus, the petals curving and bending as elegantly the women dancing around it.

“Was it something you enjoyed?” 

“Yes.” Kuvira looks down. “I loved performing. Dancing makes me feel graceful. It is even more pleasurable than fighting."

"Did Su teach you to dance?" Korra remembers Beifong's past as an acrobat.

"Yes. I can best her in a fight because I've watched her dance."

Korra has witnessed Suyin in battle. The lightness in her step is more characteristic of airbending than earthbending.

"Suyin encouraged me to choreograph and direct my own productions, but I loved dancing the most.  She said that there was a greater reward in watching one’s creations come to life, that it is easier to see what can be improved and perfected, what elements work and fail when you aren’t one of the moving parts.” 

A pause.

“She was right, of course.  I had a talent for arranging people on the stage.  But I still missed participating.  But it is shameful to admit that one would prefer to be a spoke in a wheel than the one turning it."

She looks directly at Korra then.  “Baatar never understood that.  It is why he took to me so easily, because of what his mother had imparted on the both of us.”

Korra finds the intensity of her gaze unsettling, having never encountered such a raw expression from the other woman until now.  She breaks eye contact first and chooses to say nothing because she doesn't know what to say. Not once has she contemplated her life outside of her role as the Avatar. It is not a question that has ever compelled her.  

For the Avatar's path is cut from birth, a life grown and fostered from a place of need. The Avatar must remain constant through each trial, their sense of justice shaped and honed with each tribulation. To suffer means to grow, each new wound offering its own wisdom.

Korra's life has always had meaning because her existence was fated in the stars. Where her life sprung forth from the great need of the world, Kuvira's was shaped from the opposite. Unwanted from the start, a life striving to disprove those who'd condemned the forces of fate that'd brought her to them.

 

\--

 

Later that night, the temperature takes a steep drop, reaching new unbearable lows.  Outside, the wind howls and batters against their tent. The trees around them offer little protection. The hours are unbearably cold and unwelcoming. Sleep does not come, and Korra finds herself wiling away the hours maintaining continuous low level firebending to circulate heat throughout her whole body. It only helps a little.

Next to her, she can feel Kuvira shivering uncontrollably.

Korra wordlessly unzips her sleeping bag, then reaches out and unzips Kuvira's. She lays a hand on her shoulder. The other woman inches herself backwards, head still facing the other direction, until their bodies are pressed into each other.

Korra cannot continue to firebend, for her chi grows weak.

They have no other choice. This is an unspoken understanding between them.

Eventually, they are both pulled into slumber, restful sleep sustained by their shared heat.


	2. Chapter 2

In the morning, they wash their clothes and their bodies. The burnt remains of their fire provides them with charcoal which they soak in warm water to rinse their arms, legs, and face. Their clothes are thrown into a pot full of water along with charred black bits of wood, then boiled. 

"How do you live your life knowing that your work will never be done?"

 Today, Korra has a headache and is not in the mood for Kuvira's cryptic questions. To her, they always feel like thinly veiled taunts.

"I don't understand what you mean." Except she does, of course.

 "Your work is never complete.  When your life ends, the next Avatar will pick up what you left behind."

"Technically, it'll still be me who picks up where I left off."

"True." Kuvira removes her under tunic from the pot and hands it to Korra for her to airbend and dry. "Still, it must be a lonely existence. Lonelier still for the one you love."

Korra freezes.

"But it's loneliest for people like me and you, whose true loyalty is to a world that needs us more than we could ever love one single person."

"Except you failed," Korra spits out. "You were wrong, and because of that, you failed."

 

\--

 

Everything is white. The blizzard is something they could not avoid.

Korra and Kuvira walk against the wind, wind that is more snow than air, pelting against their faces like fine needles that feel both cold and hot at once, burning and freezing every pore.

Hours before the snow storm had begun, they'd crossed a frozen river, walking cautiously on top of thick ice, groans and deep crackles emanating from below their feet. They'd metalbent tiny sharp spikes onto the soles of their boots for traction so they could walk without slipping.

Korra would have used her waterbending to float them safely across, but her energy had waned to nothing. They were running low on food, having only the nutrition bars to rely on for sustenance. Kuvira had given her half of her own portion that morning, reasoning that they needed Korra's abilities more than hers if anything were to happen.

But now, they both struggle to continue their slow march forward through the blinding snowstorm. The blizzard is also deafening to the ears, the hoarse scream of wind streaming down her eardrums. 

Korra's vision goes spotty and her head feels light. 

Everything is white, and then suddenly, everything is black.

 

\--

 

 _You look so serious_.

Asami's soft laughter is like twinkling clay bells. Just like the ones Pema has hanging from a fruit tree in her garden. Korra loves this sound.

She feels soft fingers thread through her hair.

 _What's up?_

She sighs.

_What have I ever made? I mean, I know I've done a lot, like stop crazy dictators and end the force of chaos and put away murderous anarchists, but ... I haven't created anything. All I do is disrupt and repair._

_Well ..._ Asami continues to play with her hair, gently twisting a thick brown lock between her thumb and index finger. _You mean aside from magically creating a giant spirit portal that leads into a whole other world?_  

Korra pouts. _Asami, I'm serious!_

 _Okay, okay._ She smiles down at her. _Honestly, the way I see it, you create opportunity. You make room for new ideas to exist. You define balance by identifying and correcting imbalance, making possible the very idea of hope by opening up space for it to exist._

This takes her aback. It sounds like something Tenzin would say, something He may have heard from Aang.

Korra kisses her then, grateful.

 

\--

 

Korra's body is on fire. Asami is on top of her, naked, writhing, red mouth sealed over hers. Lips wrestling and tongues touching. To kiss Asami is to taste her. Melting sweet. Never enough.

Skin is supple and soft under her fingers. She traces up and down the curve of her spine. Grabs at each shoulder blade desperately when a moan escapes parted lips. A kiss interrupted. Teeth nip at Korra's lower lip. Their hips press together, legs tangled and sweaty.

Korra's body is desperate for Asami. Every cell of her being cries out for contact -- to be touched, to be kissed, to be taken and possessed. She would beg if she had to, if Asami didn't oblige on her own. Somehow, Asami always knows what she wants even before she herself knows it.

Asami's hands roam down to her breasts, cupping hard, squeezing. There is no gentleness to her touch, just pure want singing out from the center of her palms.

Her body is on fire.

Korra thinks she can continue burning like this for the rest of her life, flames stoked for eternity by Asami's touch.

 

\--

 

Korra wakes up to find herself sprawled on an unzipped sleeping bag, wearing only her undergarments and wraps.

Kuvira is on top of her and kissing her hard on the mouth. She freezes. Kuvira does not stop.

Her head still feels light and her body is freezing cold. Her lower lip is captured between deft lips. She feels it being sucked lightly, then harder. Hard. A bite. A harsh breath. A low moan in a voice unfamiliar. 

"Stop! What --" 

Korra is dizzy. Cool hands run along her ribs, come around to trace the faint line of firm muscle on her flat stomach. It feels good to be touched. Feels good to be kissed. Feels good when is so very cold. She's so cold. 

Korra kisses back eagerly, her own hands maneuvering under clothes, fingers exploring a terrain of sinewy muscle along a curving, flexing back. Head swimming, a spinning sensation. Smooth scar tissue, criss-crossing.  A body sturdy, a body strong. Not lithe and soft and long. _Asami_ ...

Hands shoot straight out and she shoves Kuvira away. Finally recognizes the face behind the body. "No, stop! Stop. Get away --"

It is freezing cold.  Washes down over her. Cold down to her bones. Sinks like ice down to marrow. No body, no pressure, no warmth.

Before she collapses, Korra cries out a name.

 

\--

 

A sharp, herbal aroma. Smells like Pema and Tenzin's kitchen.

Or the library at the Sato estate. At the magic hour when the sun begins to set, light pours in through the windows, flooding the room in orange and white, shadows from the outside trees dappling on the bookshelves, light and dark fluttering from hypnotic swaying leaves.

This is where Asami takes her afternoon tea. During this warm hour.

Korra wakes up. The wind howls outside.  There is something wet and cool bunched on her forehead. She blinks and her vision clears.

Removing the cold compress on her head, she sits up. Kuvira is on the other side of the tent, kneeling in front of the stove. The soft roil of bubbles emanates from the tin pot sitting on the burner.

"I see that your fever has broken." She turns her head just slightly, not looking at Korra, but speaking toward her. "I made you some ginseng tea." She nods at the floor.

A steaming cup of tea sits by the edge of her sleeping bag. With both hands, she picks it up, looking over at Kuvira for a slow second before sipping it. Warmth trickles down her throat. 

Her body still aches, but she can feel her energy returning already. The damp under layer of clothes are soaked through; she'd sweat through the night, meaning the worst was over. Korra never stays sick for very long, her Water Tribe blood and Avatar spirit making for a robust immune system.

Korra continues to watch Kuvira as she pours boiling water carefully into her own cup. Kuvira steeps a sachet of tea, dipping and lifting the moist bag with her fingers.

"You made quite a racket, babbling all night."

She must have been delirious during the worst of her fever, Korra thinks. Of course, she had to have been. The faint memory of lips and hands emerges, hot and shameful.

"You were saying her name over and over."

Korra lets silence speak for her fatigue.

 

\--

 

They've gone too far north. 

Standing on a black, rocky shore, Korra realizes this miscalculation in distance. The sea churns before her, a frothing turquoise glass green, and behind her, flat stretch of snow she'd spent days walking waits patient and white.

The North Pole must be beyond these waves. It has been quite some time since she'd stood before a sea so icy, so cold and pure.

She and Kuvira had trudged wordlessly to the ocean, both drawn to it, gravitating to its refreshing beauty. Water, unfrozen, water, always moving. Not snow packed tight in fine powder, not ice slicked sharp and treacherous. But water blue and green and deep and clear.

They were greeted with a rare surprise: a field of scattered icy stars floating and bobbing on the ocean waves. Ice blossoms, like a violent burst flash frozen, delicate edges and corners pointing and shimmering from every angle.

Urchin, firework, star: all metaphors fail to capture their essence. Korra is far from a poet, but thinks words would only further disappoint this sight. Even bending cannot recreate this scene, for bending requires intent. Only the mysterious forces of nature could create such a thing, an unexpected result of many different phenomena converging in a single rare moment.

She recalls the early days of loving Asami, remembers the time they'd made love in a spirit lake, how the water had turned pink, the still, glassy surface exhaling blue and purple droplets of moisture, tiny shimmering globes evaporating up into diamond dust.  They'd stared up in wonder and Asami had held her close, asking, _Is that you? Like what you said earlier?  How the Avatar's emotions change the Spirit World? Is this you?_

Korra had told her no, that it was the both of them together. But what she'd really meant to say was, _No, this is all you_. For it had been true. Without Asami to unveil that wonder, it would have just been her alone in the water, staid and flat. Without her love, she would be less than, would have nothing.

And as Korra stares at the frost flowers, this gift that she'd stumbled upon, she begins to cry.  She wishes Asami were by her side, watching and marveling at the sight. She wants nothing more than to see those green eyes drink in the beauty. 

Will she ever see her again? Or will she die out here in the cold, forced to witness this achingly beautiful vision before she is ushered into a lonely death with no one to hold her?

She cannot stop crying. 

A voice beside her speaks in a soft, low voice. "I am glad I am alive to see this."

Korra feels a hand on her shoulder.

"We will make it out of here alive, Korra."

It is the first time Kuvira has called her by her name.

 

\--

 

The Great Black Cliffs. They are close. Only a little farther south and their journey will be over.

The cliffs are tall and steep. Black rock cuts jagged into the field of snow and stretches up into the sky, reaches higher than the tallest towers in Republic City. The stone is a shocking contrast, a long wall that glistens at certain angles, like onyx or obsidian catching the light. 

Low on the cliffs, closer to the ground, there are gray and white striations that continue horizontally for its entire length. Korra thinks if she chooses one of these mineral veins, she would be able to follow it from the beginning to end. A single continuous line. 

They walk south until nightfall.

Tomorrow, they must find the cliffside shaped like a woman's face. It is there that the guards of the prison compound will be waiting for them.

Tomorrow, they must reach it they have no food left save for one nutrition bar which they split into four pieces. Two for tonight, two for tomorrow. 

Exhausted, they take to sleep immediately, collapsing as soon as their tent is assembled.

 

\--

 

The next morning, Korra wakes up alone to an empty, half-collapsed tent.

Panicked, she rips open the tent flap and runs outside. Kuvira stands out in the snow, her arms held out before her and a long, sharp piece of metal hovering mid-air between each cupped hand, the pointed tip a foot away from her abdomen.

Korra knows exactly what is happening even before she's fully processed the scene.

"Stop!" 

"Don't come a single step closer, Avatar." 

"What do you think you're doing?" 

"Ending things on my own terms."

"Why?" She all but shouts.

"Because my work is over and I have nothing left to show for it but shame and regret. I refuse to live out the rest of my days reliving that hell."

"Haven't you learned anything? Think of how this will affect the people who --"

"Who love me? You can't be serious. If they even think of me at all, this will bring them closure and justice."

"It'll do the opposite!" Korra is now screaming. "It'll taint their memory of you, what good memories they have left -- you are selfish!"

"You're right. But my own regret will end and I will stop having to feel like I owe anyone anything."

"You've really learned nothing.  It's crazy. You could at least try to learn from the pain you've caused everyone and yourself."

"Not all pain gives way to wisdom, Avatar. Sometimes, pain is just pain."

Korra thinks of mentioning the time she'd lost her bending and how she had stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, how she'd watched her own teardrop fall into the waves below, thinking how easy it would be follow it. This is not something she has ever shared with anyone, not even Asami. Only her past lives knew about this moment, and the truth was buried with them the moment they disappeared from her soul.

Korra thinks of how lucky she has been that the path to her destiny had reopened by a miracle. To this day, she does not know if she would have had the fortitude to turn away and choose another road, one paved by her own making. She does not know if she would be capable of such strength.

"You are robbing yourself the chance for forgiveness. You are being a coward."

At this, Kuvira arches an eyebrow.

"You are being weak. Weakness never warrants a reason, but neither does strength."

Kuvira stares at her. Korra cannot read her expression, so she continues.

"If you do this ... If you do this, this moment of weakness will be your only legacy. Is that what you want?" 

A long moment passes and briefly, just briefly, Kuvira's face crumples.

The spear drops to the ground. Lays bright and silver against the white snow.

 

\--

 

They sit together in the tent.  Korra fishes out the last two pieces of food from her now nearly empty daypack.

Next to her, Kuvira has begun rummaging through the other bag. She takes out the radio that Asami had given Korra.

"What is this?"

"Oh, that. It's a radio tracking device thing that Asami gave me. It broke, though."

Kuvira turns it over, examining each surface and detail.

"Cold can damage circuitry. Baatar told me that once."

"I know." 

"I bet something got jostled out of place. Sometimes wires disconnect and just need to be reattached. Maybe if I try to metalbend some of the wires ..."

Holding it in her left hand, Kuvira raises her right and makes small, fine movements with her fingers.

"I can't do it. The wires are too small. I can barely get a sense for what connects to what."

"That and you wouldn't know where anything is supposed to go, anyway."

Then, to Korra's horror, Kuvira violently shakes the device.

"Stop! What are you doing?" 

"It's already broken. Baatar also used to say that a good hard shake is sometimes all a broken piece of machinery needs to start working again."

Korra thinks this is something Varrick would say. Suddenly, Kuvira shakes it again, this time a lot harder and for a lot longer.

"Stop fucking shaking it! Give me that --" She snatches it from her hands. "Maybe if I try warming it up ..." Korra concentrates on radiating heat from each palm, cradling the device in both hands like a small animal.

She thinks she sees the tiny bulb flicker, then go dim again. Korra looks to Kuvira in shock and the other woman's eyes grow wide and round.

"Try it again."

Korra tries again, this time amping up the chi just a little. The bulb stays dark. She tosses it to the ground in frustration. "Damn it!"

A loud frustrated shout erupts from her throat and she angrily slaps at the air in the direction of the radio, releasing a short burst of lightning from her fingertips. Upon impact, the machine twitches and jolts and the light flicks on.

Static pours out from its circular grill and soon enough, a grainy voice cuts through the noise.

"Hello?" 

Korra scrambles to the radio and takes it into her hands, brings it up to her mouth. 

"Hello! Hello! It's Korra. Get Asami Sato, we need help. We need help, please go get her _now_!" 

The desperation is clear in her voice and after one arduously long minute, another voice shouts out from the tiny speaker, scratchy and unclear but very familiar. 

"Korra?"

"Asami!" 

"Korra, stay calm and stay where you are.  We're tracking the signal."

Korra doesn't understand how Asami expects her to stay calm through this exchange.

"Asami, the stupid thing broke -- we've been out here for weeks, me and Kuvira. Everyone else is dead -- there was an avalanche -- and it's just us. We don't have any supplies left and we've been walking forever. I don't know how much longer we can last --" 

Her voice is hysterical at this point, she can hear herself breaking, and hot tears have begun to gather at the corners of her eyes.

"Korra, just stay calm, it's going to be okay. We just need an hour to --"

"An hour? Are you kidding? This thing was broken until just now, what if it breaks again?"

"We're working as fast as we can. Just try to keep it warm in the meantime."

"Asami, just, could you --" Korra is fully crying now.

"I'll stay here, okay? I'm here. I can keep talking for as long as you want."

Korra takes a deep breath. "Okay.  Okay." 

"Good." Korra can almost hear the smile behind Asami's voice. She turns around to check on Kuvira who's been quiet this entire time. The expression on her face is neutral, but she detects a smidge of discomfort behind her shifting eyes.

Korra turns back to face the radio and lets out a loud sigh.  

"I'm starving. And I'm so sick of snow. I'm never waterbending again, I swear."

Asami's laughter is barely audible through the scratchy static but it still manages to fill her with longing.

"I can only imagine. I'll make sure to have multiple bowls of noodles waiting for you when --"

A distant rumbling. Then the ground beneath her begins to shake, tremors that begin deep within the earth rising quickly to the surface.

Instinct kicks in and Korra shoots to her feet.  She grabs the radio and tears open the tent. Kuvira quickly follows suit and they both stumble out into the snow, the earth still quaking beneath them. Asami's voice shouts incoherently from the tinny speaker tucked under her arm.

The tremors finally begin to quell and the two women regain their balance and footing. She's about to sigh in relief when another sound booms overhead. Korra has heard this muffled surge before so she kicks up her knees and runs as fast as her legs can carry her, sprinting away from the black cliffs. Kuvira is close behind her, also running.

Sure enough, a tidal wave of snow erupts forth from the cliff top and plummets toward them. They cannot outrun the avalanche, so Korra turns and grabs Kuvira by the waist, blasting twin cyclones of air from the soles of their feet. They propel up, but not fast enough -- the wall of snow catches up and begins to overtake them. 

Korra sweeps down her arm to conjure the same sphere of air that had saved both their lives weeks ago, forgetting the radio she's been holding in her hand. She drops the radio.

Before the sphere is complete, Kuvira wriggles free from Korra's arm and dives for the falling radio.

Korra watches in horror as Kuvira's shrinking figure is enveloped in blinding, roaring white. The last thing she remembers is zooming toward a field of white as if she were flying straight into the sun.

 

\--

 

"Welcome back."

A warm hand strokes hair back gently from her forehead. Korra opens her eyes to find Asami smiling down at her.

She licks her painfully chapped lips and winces when she tastes blood.

"Hey ..." Korra tries to sit up, but finds she cannot, body boneless and aching. Asami hushes her and gently pushes her back down, adjusting the pillow under her head so that her neck is properly supported.

 Korra groans. "Where are we? What happened? The last thing I remember is an avalanche ..." 

"You're back in Republic City and we're in a hospital." At these words, Korra sighs in relief. "As for what happened, Kuvira said you popped into the Avatar state and --"

"So she's okay?"

Asami nods. "She's fine. They took her to the new prison compound. And thanks to her, we were able to track your position and send help just in time."

"Ugh, I thought I was going to kill her. She dove straight into the avalanche."

"Yeah, well she did save the radio and stayed with you the whole time you were unconscious. And actually ..."

Asami tries to quash the laughter bubbling up in her throat.

"What?"

"I told her to keep the radio warm." She pauses. "By holding it between her thighs "

"Wait, what?" 

"It's one of the warmest places on the human body." Asami is failing miserably at keeping a straight face.

"So are telling me you talked into her crotch for an hour?" 

This mental image causes Korra to burst out in laughter, guffawing so loud and so hard that she thinks she might faint. Asami joins in, face breaking, shoulders shaking. 

By the time their laughter has died down to a soft chuckle, sleep tugs at Korra's eyelids and she soon finds herself sinking into sleep, a smile still playing on her lips.

 

\--

 

Over the next week, Korra recovers back at the Sato estate. Most of these days are spent eating and resting, with Asami tending to her and keeping her company when she can, having taken time off work to be with her. 

Her appetite is ravenous, having lost a lot of weight during the trip, and Korra puts away bowlfuls of noodles, plates of meat buns, and whatever else the house cook can whip up for her. 

On evenings when Asami is restless and itching to return to work, they order in delivery and eat in the library.

While Asami reads reports and makes adjustments to sketches (everything can be streamlined and efficiency doesn't preclude attractive design -- must she do everything herself?), Korra digs into one of the many serialized novels from her favorite adventure series (the villain is so obvious -- the hero can be pretty dumb even though his bending sounds really cool).

Later, when they are both lying in bed, Asami observes a shift in Korra's face. She tucks a stray piece of hair behind Korra's ear.

"You look so serious." This is often a game they play: a teasing remark made to help ease Korra into sharing her thoughts. 

"Being with me ... Does it make you feel lonely?" Her voice is soft. Asami can sense the worry behind them, so she treads carefully. 

"What do you mean? In what way?" 

"Well, it's like this one time Mako said it was harder being the Avatar's boyfriend than it was to be the Avatar."

In the back of her mind, Asami thinks she'll have to smack Mako on the head next time she sees him, but keeps this thought private, refraining from criticizing him aloud in front Korra. 

"You know my thoughts on this, Korra."

"I know, but ..." Korra is thinking of a cold tent out in the middle of the snow. "Kuvira said something similar. That it's hard to love someone who'll always love the world more than them."

"Do you think that's true for you?" 

"I don't know. I mean, the world needs me and I'll always try to fulfill those needs because I'm bound to my role the Avatar. But everyone knows me just as the Avatar and not as Korra and I guess ..." she sighs in frustration. She's never been very articulate.

"I mean, no, I don't love the world more than I love you because I love the world as the Avatar and I love you as myself. But I guess -- how do you love me? Which one do you love more?" 

Asami thinks she understands what Korra is asking, what is bothering her.

"I love you as you. That means I love you as Korra, the Avatar, because there's no separating you from your role. It's bonded to you and you're bonded to it." She fiddles with another lock of Korra's hair, this time one that sweeps around her jawline, curling at her chin . 

"When I signed up for this, when I decided to commit to being with you, I did it knowing full well what you mean to me and what you mean to the world. Don't forget that I'm someone who lives in the world, too. And you as the Avatar ..." 

Korra is staring intensely at her now, her eyes blue and piercing, her expression open.

"It's more than just a role or position or an obligation to duty ... It's how all of those things coalesce to form your point of view. You can have your place in the world and also have a place here with me."

She takes Korra's hand and presses a kiss across her knuckles.

"But I also know my own place in the world. Sometimes, it overlaps with yours, which is beautiful and makes me better equipped to be with you. I can handle being by your side. It's difficult sometimes, yeah, like with everything that happened a few weeks ago."

Her hand strokes over Korra's cheek. "But it's worth it. And if I'm really being honest with myself, it's easy.  It's so easy to love you and believe in you, just like it was easy for Raava to see something special in Wan."

Korra leans forward and kisses her and Asami responds in earnest. Korra pulls back, then dips down to snuggle into her, her head nestling safely under chin.

"So does that answer your question?"

Korra nods against her.  An embarrassing thought comes to her then and her face burns with shame.

"Um, Asami? I kind of need to tell you something." Korra pulls back to face her, pushing herself up with either hand on Asami's sides so that she's hovering directly above her.

"What? What is it?"

"So, I came down with a fever one night and ..." She bites her lip and looks away. "I was having a kind of intense dream about you and ... Well, I woke up to Kuvira, uh, kissing me."

Asami's expression is blank. "Huh. Just kissing?"

Korra grits her teeth. "Um, well, she was also in the middle of taking off my clothes and I was doing the same." She pauses. "To her. But I didn't know what was going on, I swear! I was totally out if it and confused and it's just that in the dream you were totally feeling me up and --"

"Was Kuvira also sick?"

"Uh, no. Not as far I know." 

Asami laughs. There isn't a sliver of bitterness or sarcasm behind her laughter.

"Well, I can hardly expect anyone to spend over two weeks trapped alone with you inside a tiny tent without wanting to jump you."

Korra laughs nervously. "So you're not mad?"

"Depends," Asami smirks. "Care to elaborate on that dream you had?"

Korra grins before bending down to kiss her. "I think a demonstration would be a better option."

Asami sighs in content and lies back on the comforter, stretching lazily like a cat as soft lips trail down her neck, across her collarbones.

"I'm so glad you're home."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something fun: google image search "frost flowers." It's a real thing and it's beautiful.


	3. Epilogue

One month later, Korra receives a letter. It bears the golden seal of the Earth Kingdom but appears to have been broken and resealed, the wax thicker and more distorted than any normal seal.  

It bears no return address.

Korra opens it, tears the flap back, snapping the seal in two. Inside is a small note with a single line:

 

_Korra,_

_Do you still see yourself in me?_

_\- Kuvira_

 

Truthfully, Korra thinks, not so much anymore, but when she sits down to write, she answers yes.

_Yes._

_Because I see myself in everyone._

_Because everyone deserves a chance to be heard and the best way to do it is to see the world through their eyes, even for a brief second, even if ultimately, I do not understand._

**Author's Note:**

> Splitting this into parts because on its own, it's incredibly long. This was inspired largely by Ursula K. Le Guin's _The Left Hand of Darkness_. I really wanted to explore Korra and Kuvira characters because the idea of each being the other's foil appealed so much to me. I decided to write the fanfic equivalent of a bottle episode for these two, placing them in total isolation through a journey plagued with hardships to see what kind of dynamic would emerge between them.
> 
> Asami is a huge presence here and I consider her to be the third main character of this fic, even though she's experienced almost solely in flashback, through Korra's memories and thoughts.


End file.
